French colonial period (1863-1953)

In 1863, Cambodia under king Norodom became a protectorate of France. In
October 1887, the French announced the formation of the Union Indochinoise
(Union of Indochina), which at that time comprised Cambodia, already an
autonomous French possession, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam,
and Cochinchina. In 1893, Laos was annexed after the French threatened Siam's
King Chulalongkorn with war, thereby forcing him to give up the territory.

In 1863, Cambodia under king Norodom became a protectorate of France. In
October 1887, the French announced the formation of the Union Indochinoise
(Union of Indochina), which at that time comprised Cambodia, already an
autonomous French possession, and the three regions of Vietnam (Tonkin, Annam,
and Cochinchina. In 1893, Laos was annexed after the French threatened Siam's
King Chulalongkorn with war, thereby forcing him to give up the territory.

French colonial occupation

The seat of the Governor-General for the whole of French Indochina was based
in Hanoi, which was situated in Tonkin (now northern Vietnam). Cambodia, being a
constituent protectorate of French Indochina, was governed by the R?sident
Sup?rieur (Resident-General) for Cambodia, who was directly appointed by the
Ministry of Marine and Colonies in Paris. The Resident-General was in turn
assisted by Residents, or local governors, who were posted in all the provincial
centers, such as, Battambang, Pursat, Odong, and Siem Reap. Phnom Penh, the
capital, was under the direct administration of the Resident-General.

The Resident-General held considerable power, but the person in the position
frequently wanted more. In 1897, the ruling Resident-General complained to Paris
that the current king of Cambodia, King Norodom was no longer fit to rule and
asked for permission to assume the king's powers to collect taxes, issue
decrees, and even appoint royal officials and choose crown princes. From that
time, Norodom and the future kings of Cambodia were figureheads and merely were
patrons of the Buddhist religion in Cambodia, though they were still viewed as
god-kings by the peasant population. All other power was in the hands of the
Resident-General and the colonial bureaucracy. Nonetheless, this bureaucracy was
formed mostly of French officials, and the only Asians freely permitted were
ethnic Vietnamese, who were viewed as the dominant Asians in the Indochinese
Union.

In 1904, King Norodom died. Rather than pass the throne on to Norodom's sons,
the French passed the succession to Norodom's brother Sisowath, whose branch of
the royal family was more submissive and less nationalistic to French rule than
Norodom's, who was viewed as the more nationalistic branch of the family.
Likewise, Norodom was viewed as responsible for the constant Cambodian revolts
against French rule. Another reason was that Norodom's favorite son, who he
wanted to succeed him as king, Prince Yukanthor, had, on one of his trips to
Europe, stirred up public opinion about French colonial brutalities in occupied
Cambodia.

Siem Reap, Battambang & Preah Vihear received by King Sisowath, 1907

Meanwhile, the rule of King Sisowath, and his son, King Sisowath Monivong,
were peaceful, even though the monarchs were nothing but puppets and pliant
instruments of the French. During Sisowath's reign, the French succeeded in
getting Thailand's reformist king, King Chulalongkorn, to sign a new treaty in
1907, which returned the northwestern provinces of Battambang and Siemreab back
to Cambodian rule. In this sense, the Sisowath branch of the family is seen in
restoring Cambodian land, even though it all passed under oppressive French
colonial rule.

Economy during the French colonial occupation

Not long after the French first established an autonomous presence in
Cambodia in 1863, the French realized that their dream of Cambodia becoming the
"Singapore of Indochina" was an illusion and that Cambodia had no hidden wealth.
Thereafter, Cambodia's economy was not significantly modernized. France
collected taxes efficiently, but otherwise brought few changes to the Cambodian
village economy.

Discrimination against non-Vietnamese by the French continued, especially
when it was revealed that Cambodians paid the highest taxes per capita in
Indochina. In 1916, a tax revolt bought tens of thousands of peasants to Phnom
Penh to petition King Sisowath Monivong for a reduction in taxes. The French,
who had thought the Cambodians were too quiet and indolent to organize a
protest, were shocked. Despite the protest, King Sisowath Monivong could do
nothing. In 1925, villagers killed a French resident who threatened to arrest
tax delinquents.

Some areas of the economy did develop under French rule. The French built
some roads and railroads on Cambodian territory. While relatively few kilometers
of railways were laid, one important line connected Phnom Penh and the Thai
border through Battambang. The cultivation of rubber and corn was economically
important, and soon Battambang and Siemreab provinces became the rice bowls of
Indochina. During the 1920s, Cambodia profited when rubber and corn were in
demand, but after the Great Depression in 1929, Cambodia began to suffer,
especially among rice cultivators whose falling incomes made then more than ever
the victims of moneylenders.

Industry was primarily designed to process raw materials for local use or for
export. Immigration into Cambodia was considerable; and Cambodia became quite
ethnically diverse. As in Burma and Malaysia, which were both under British
rule, foreigners dominated the work force of the economy. Vietnamese, despite
their privileged position, became laborers on rubber plantations. Soon, many
Vietnamese immigrants began to play important roles in the colonial economy as
fisherman and businessmen. The Chinese had been living in Cambodia for
centuries, and they dominated commerce before the French arrival. Under the
French, this status quo remained the same, but the French placed restrictions on
the Chinese. Nonetheless, Chinese merchants and bankers in Cambodia developed
commercial networks that extended throughout Indochina to China as well.

Emergence of
Khmer nationalism

Unlike Vietnam, Cambodian nationalism was politically quiet during from the
1900s to the 1930s. This was probably so because of the reigning monarch and the
way the French handled the monarchy. Khmer villages who were used to abuse of
power believed that if the monarch was on the throne, Cambodia was fine as it
was. At the same time, low literacy rates in Cambodia, which the French were
reluctant to improve, stopped nationalist currents to spread as they were in
Vietnam.

However, Cambodian nationalism was emerging among the educated urban Khmer
elite. When the French restored the monuments at Angkor Wat, the pride of many
Cambodians' was awakened at their country and their past history. Many of the
new urban educated elite were graduates of the Cambodian History department at
Lycee Sisowath in Phnom Penh. There, resentment at the way Vietnamese students
were favored resulted in a petition to King Monivong in the 1930s.
Significantly, the first major nationalists, members of the Khmer Krom, were
members of the Cambodian minority who lived in Vietnam. Son Ngoc Than and Pach
Choeun began publishing Nagaravatta (Angkor Wat), the first Khmer newspaper. It
mildly condemned French colonial policies, its corruption, its usury in rural
areas, foreign domination of the economy, and also criticized the Vietnamese for
their past imperialism and their privileged position in Indochina.

Flag of Cambodia under Japanese occupation

The Khmer were lucky in escaping the suffering endured by most other
Southeast Asian peoples during World War II. After the establishment of the
Vichy regime in France in 1940, Japanese forces moved into Vietnam and displaced
French authority. In mid-1941, they entered Cambodia but allowed Vichy French
colonial officials to remain at their administrative posts. The pro-Japanese
regime in Thailand, headed by Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram, requested
assurances from the Vichy regime that, in the event of an interruption of French
sovereignty, Cambodian and Laotian territories formerly belong to Thailand would
be returned to Bangkok's authority. The request was rejected. In December 1940
the French-Thai War erupted, and the Thai Burapha Army invaded Cambodia the
following month. The French were hard-pressed to resist against the
better-equipped Thai forces on the ground and in the air, but nevertheless
managed to score a naval victory in the Gulf of Thailand . At this point, Tokyo
intervened and compelled the French authorities to agree to a treaty ceding the
province of Battambang and part of the province of Siemreab to Thailand in
exchange for a small compensation. The Cambodians were allowed to retain Angkor.
Thai aggression, however, had minimal impact on the lives of most Cambodians
outside the north-western region.

King Monivong died in April 1941. Although his son, Prince Monichao, had been
considered the heir apparent, the French chose instead Norodom Sihanouk, the
great grandson of King Norodom. Sihanouk was an ideal candidate from their point
of view because of his youth (he was nineteen years old), his lack of
experience, and his pliability.

Japanese calls of "Asia for the Asiatics" found a receptive audience among
Cambodian nationalists, although Tokyo's policy in Indochina was to leave the
colonial government nominally in charge. When a prominent, politically active
Buddhist monk, Hem Chieu, was arrested and unceremoniously defrocked by the
French authorities in July 1942, the editors of Nagaravatta led a
demonstration demanding his release. They, as well as other nationalists,
apparently overestimated the Japanese willingness to back them, for the Vichy
authorities quickly arrested the demonstrators and gave Pach Choeun, one of the
Nagaravatta editors, a life sentence . The other editor, Son Ngoc Thanh,
escaped from Phnom Penh and turned up the following year in Tokyo.

In a desperate effort to enlist local support in the final months of the war,
the Japanese dissolved the French colonial administration on March 9, 1945, and
urged Cambodia to declare its independence within the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere. Four days later, King Sihanouk decreed an independent
Kampuchea (the original Khmer pronunciation of Cambodia). Son Ngoc Thanh
returned from Tokyo in May, and he was appointed foreign minister. On August 15,
1945, the day Japan surrendered, a new government was established with Son Ngoc
Thanh acting as prime minister. When an Allied force occupied Phnom Penh in
October, Thanh was arrested for collaboration with the Japanese and was sent
into exile in France to remain under house arrest. Some of his supporters went
to north-western Cambodia, then still under Thai control, where they banded
together as one faction in the Khmer Issarak movement, originally formed with
Thai encouragement in the 1940s.

Struggle for Khmer
unity

Cambodia's situation at the end of the war was chaotic. The Free French,
under General Charles de Gaulle, were determined to recover Indochina, though
they offered Cambodia and the other Inchochinese protectorates a carefully
circumscribed measure of self-government. Convinced that they had a "civilizing
mission," they envisioned Indochina's participation in a French Union of former
colonies that shared the common experience of French culture. Neither the urban
professional elites nor the common people, however, were attracted by this
arrangement. For Cambodians of practically all walks of life, the brief period
of independence, from March to October 1945, had been enjoyable. The lassitude
of the Khmer was a thing of the past.

In Phnom Penh, Sihanouk, acting as head of state, was placed in a delicate
position of negotiating with the French for full independence while trying to
neutralize party politicians and supporters of the Khmer Issarak and Viet Minh
who considered him a French collaborator. During the tumultuous period between
1946 and 1953, Sihanouk displayed the remarkable aptitude for political survival
that sustained him before and after his fall from power in March 1970. The Khmer
Issarak was an extremely heterogeneous guerrilla movement, operating in the
border areas. The group included indigenous leftists, Vietnamese leftists,
anti-monarchical nationalists (Khmer Serei) loyal to Son Ngoc Thanh, and plain
bandits taking advantage of the chaos to terrorize villagers. Though their
fortunes rose and fell during the immediate postwar period (a major blow was the
overthrow of a left-wing friendly government in Bangkok in 1947), by 1954 the
Khmer Issarak operating with the Viet Minh by some estimates controlled as much
as 50 percent of Cambodia's territory.

In 1946, France allowed the Cambodians to form political parties and to hold
elections for a Consultative Assembly that would advise the monarch on drafting
the country's constitution. The two major parties were both headed by royal
princes. The Democratic Party, led by Prince Sisowath Yuthevong, espoused
immediate independence, democratic reforms, and parliamentary government. Its
supporters were teachers, civil servants, politically active members of the
Buddhist priesthood, and others whose opinions had been greatly influenced by
the nationalistic appeals of Nagaravatta before it was closed down by the
French in 1942. Many Democrats sympathized with the violent methods of the Khmer
Issarak. The Liberal Party, led by Prince Norodom Norindeth, represented the
interests of the old rural elites, including large landowners. They preferred
continuing some form of the colonial relationship with France, and advocated
gradual democratic reform. In the Consultative Assembly election held in
September 1946, the Democrats won 50 of 67 seats.

With a solid majority in the assembly, the Democrats drafted a constitution
modeled on that of the French Fourth Republic. Power was concentrated in the
hands of a popularly elected National Assembly. The king reluctantly proclaimed
the new constitution on May 6, 1947. While it recognized him as the "spiritual
head of the state," it reduced him to the status of a constitutional monarch,
and it left unclear the extent to which he could play an active role in the
politics of the nation. Sihanouk would turn this ambiguity to his advantage in
later years, however.

In the December 1947 elections for the National Assembly, the Democrats again
won a large majority. Despite this, dissension within the party was rampant. Its
founder, Sisowath Yuthevong, had died and no clear leader had emerged to succeed
him. During the period 1948 to 1949, the Democrats appeared united only in their
opposition to legislation sponsored by the king or his appointees. A major issue
was the king's receptivity to independence within the French Union, proposed in
a draft treaty offered by the French in late 1948. Following dissolution of the
National Assembly in September 1949, agreement on the pact was reached through
an exchange of letters between King Sihanouk and the French government. It went
into effect two months later, though National Assembly ratification of the
treaty was never secured.

The treaty granted Cambodia what Sihanouk called "fifty percent
independence": by it, the colonial relationship was formally ended, and the
Cambodians were given control of most administrative functions. Cambodian armed
forces were granted freedom of action within a self-governing autonomous zone
comprising Battambang and Siemreab provinces, which had been recovered from
Thailand after World War II, but which the French, hard-pressed elsewhere, did
not have the resources to control. Cambodia was still required to coordinate
foreign policy matters with the High Council of the French Union, however, and
France retained a significant measure of control over the judicial system,
finances, and customs. Control of wartime military operations outside the
autonomous zone remained in French hands. France was also permitted to maintain
military bases on Cambodian territory. In 1950 Cambodia was accorded diplomatic
recognition by the United States and by most non-communist powers, but in Asia
only Thailand and South Korea extended recognition.

The Democrats won a majority in the second National Assembly election in
September 1951, and they continued their policy of opposing the king on
practically all fronts. In an effort to win greater popular approval, Sihanouk
asked the French to release nationalist Son Ngoc Thanh from exile and to allow
him to return to his country. He made a triumphant entry into Phnom Penh on
October 29, 1951. It was not long, however, before he began demanding withdrawal
of French troops from Cambodia. He reiterated this demand in early 1952 in
Khmer Krok (Khmer Awake!) a weekly newspaper that he had founded. The
newspaper was forced to cease publication in March, and Son Ngoc Thanh fled the
capital with a few armed followers to join the Khmer Issarak. Branded
alternately a communist and an agent of the United States Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) by Sihanouk, he remained in exile until Lon Nol established the
Khmer Republic in 1970.

Campaign for
independence

In June 1952, Sihanouk announced the dismissal of his cabinet, suspended the
constitution, and assumed control of the government as prime minister. Then,
without clear constitutional sanction, he dissolved the National Assembly and
proclaimed martial law in January 1953. Sihanouk exercised direct rule for
almost three years, from June 1952 until February 1955. After dissolution of the
assembly, he created an Advisory Council to supplant the legislature and
appointed his father, Norodom Suramarit, as regent.

In March 1953, Sihanouk went to France. Ostensibly, he was traveling for his
health; actually, he was mounting an intensive campaign to persuade the French
to grant complete independence. The climate of opinion in Cambodia at the time
was such that if he did not achieve full independence quickly, the people were
likely to turn to Son Ngoc Thanh and the Khmer Issarak, who were fully committed
to attaining that goal. At meetings with the French president and with other
high officials, Sihanouk was suggested as being unduly "alarmist" about internal
political conditions. The French also made the thinly veiled threat that, if he
continued to be uncooperative, they might replace him. The trip appeared to be a
failure, but on his way home by way of the United States, Canada, and Japan,
Sihanouk publicized Cambodia's plight in the media.

To further dramatize his "royal crusade for independence," Sihanouk,
declaring that he would not return until the French gave assurances that full
independence would be granted. He then left Phnom Penh in June to go into
self-imposed exile in Thailand. Unwelcome in Bangkok, he moved to his royal
villa near the ruins of Angkor in Siemreab Province. Siemreab, part of the
autonomous military zone established in 1949, was commanded by Lieutenant
Colonel Lon Nol, formerly a right-wing politician who was becoming a prominent,
and in time would be an indispensable Sihanouk ally within the military. From
his Siemreab base, the king and Lon Nol contemplated plans for resistance if the
French did not meet their terms.

Sihanouk was making a high-stakes gamble, for the French could easily have
replaced him with a more pliable monarch; however, the military situation was
deteriorating throughout Indochina, and the French government, on July 3, 1953,
declared itself ready to grant full independence to the three states of
Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Sihanouk insisted on his own terms, which included
full control of national defense, the police, the courts, and financial matters.
The French yielded: the police and the judiciary were transferred to Cambodian
control at the end of August, and in October the country assumed full command of
its military forces. King Sihanouk, now a hero in the eyes of his people,
returned to Phnom Penh in triumph, and independence day was celebrated on 9
November 1953. Control of residual matters affecting sovereignty, such as
financial and budgetary affairs, passed to the new Cambodian state in 1954.